People’s United Bank Milk Bowl: Brian Hoar
Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl Race Report
BARRE, Vt. – Brian Hoar of Williston, Vt., finished second in the 51st annual People’s United Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., on Sunday, Oct. 6. Hoar qualified on the outside of the front row for the first of three 50-lap segments, and he led every lap in the opening segment to put himself in position to challenge for the overall victory. Track position proved hard to come by in the middle segment following a field invert, but the RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge Charger finished fifth in the final segment – on a soggy track – to take second-place overall. Hoar, a three-time Milk Bowl champion, was one of only three drivers to post Top-5 finishes in two of the three segments.
WHO: Brian Hoar, Williston, Vt.
TEAM: RPM Motorsports No. 37 GossCars.com Dodge Charger
CREW CHIEF: Rick Paya, Georgia, Vt.
WHAT: People’s United Bank 51st annual Milk Bowl
WHERE: Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Barre, Vt. (.25-mile oval)
STARTED: 2nd
FINISHED: 2nd (1-16-5=22 pts)
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BRIAN, HOW CRUCIAL DID THAT SECOND SEGMENT END UP BEING?
With the weather pending, we kind of went into a little bit different strategy for the second segment, thinking, ‘This might be the race.’ It was a last-minute decision to change some tires, and it didn’t work out. The car was way too tight. The tire combo we ended up putting on for the second segment didn’t work.
Hindsight’s 20-20, and here we are finishing (second) after the third segment. The goal was actually to put the better tires on for the second segment. Anyway, everyone’s got these different strategies, but the combo didn’t work.
HOW DID THE NEW AMERICAN RACER TIRES EFFECT YOU GUYS?
These tires are really interesting in that they seem to get to a certain point and stay there for a long time. Where some of our mentality – we keep going to back to that Goodyear mentality – played a part of that decision-making. It just put us a little bit too far back.
Six points back going into that final segment, that’s not where I wanted to be. That can get dicey from there.
DID THE LIGHT RAIN IN THE FINAL SEGMENT HURT YOU?
It got a little dicey out there with the rain, because the outside groove went completely away. I won the first segment running virtually the whole thing in the outside groove, and the second segment at times I was better in the outside groove, and then in the third segment there was no outside groove. The strategy completely changed.
I caught a couple of the cautions and I got in the outside lane for the restarts, and that just made it tough. But, it’s the Milk Bowl – it’s a tough deal.
NICK SWEET SEEMED TO BE A POPULAR WINNER AMONG FANS AND COMPETITORS.
Kudos to Nick Sweet. I told all my guys, if there’s anybody I wanted to win that wasn’t us, it was Nick. I have a lot of respect for him and all his guys. They’re an incredible race team. He’s the one guy at this point that’s been close a few times, and when we all walk out there as past Milk Bowl champions, now he’ll get his chance.
He’s a good hometown boy, he’s got a great attitude, and he’s got a great head on his shoulders. Kudos to him.